We are a knitting group of about 30 members. We meet every Tuesday from 7.00 to 8.30 pm in the conference room within the management suite at the Glasgow Fort. We knit whilst having a coffee and a natter. New members are always warmly welcomed.Just press the buzzer and you will be let in.

Wednesday, 26 September 2012

The Scottish International Quilt Festival - Helen Miller

Todays blog post is brought to you by our roving reporter, Helen.

Friday morning glowed as
one of those wonderful Autumn days that put you in the mood for a jaunt to
somewhere nice. Luckily, Helen and Stephanie had arranged to visit Ingleston
for the Quilt show that day.

To the uninitiated, the
concept of a “Quilt Show” would appear to be a bit strange, verging on the
really odd! How wrong could you be! This event was attended by hundreds of
enthusiastic crafters. In fact, they came by the bus load from far and near. Bishopbriggs,
Bearsden and Cumbernauld were represented by our Valerie Lennox, Carol Judge
and Janette Kirk.

(Janette admires one of the competition pieces at the Scottish International Quilt show, Edinburgh)

Many wonderful and
amazing quilts of all shapes and sizes were displayed. Colours, shapes, amazing
fabrics and adornments assaulted and dazzled the senses. How could anyone fail
to appreciate the skill, ingenuity or inventiveness of these talented quilters.
To be honest, many of these quilts were so intricate and beautiful that they
should be considered works of art!

(fabric for sale and so much more)

The event catered for
stitchers of every kind. Retailers such as the Contented Cat, Patchwork
Cottage, the Seattle Quilt Company, Kaleidoscope and many others were there to
tempt you with fabulous fabrics, novelty buttons, threads, knitting yarns,
ribbons and other fixings. To buy or not to buy, that was the conundrum for
many people! After all, you only have two hands and one purse. Stephanie and I
were quite restrained during the retail therapy session. No credit card was
harmed or abused during any purchase!

(one of the wonderful quilts on show)

Our eyes were opened to
possible new hobbies or learning new skills such as making fabric landscape
pictures, bag making, painting on fabric and creating Christmas decorations
using polystyrene spheres and ribbons. Actually, the range of new ideas was so
numerous that we felt overwhelmed. Stall holders were only too willing to
demonstrate their skills and wares.

(one of the mini quilts by Margaret Morris. This looks like the quilter had a lot of fun creating this work. Look at the detail!)

We headed home feeling
inspired and humbled by what we had seen and heard. Between us, Stephanie and I
hope to attempt a couple of projects that were on offer, including something
for Christmas! The Scottish International Quilt Show was an entertaining day
out and we look forward in anticipation to next year.